Tiger Put Mistress on Phone With Wife

Tiger Woods’ car crash on Thanksgiving started an avalanche of news stories, but what caused the crash has remained shrouded in secrecy—until now. Tiger was undone by a text message, two anonymous sources close to Elin Nordegren tell Gerald Posner of the Daily Beast. Woods had warned Nordegren that the Enquirer story was coming, but he insisted his relationship with Rachel Uchitel was platonic, even having the two talk on the phone to convince her. But Nordegren remained suspicious.

The next night, Thanksgiving, she and Woods got into an argument, which Woods ended by taking Ambien and going to bed. Nordegren took his phone and, pretending to be her husband, texted Uchitel. When Uchitel replied in suitably damning fashion, an enraged Nordegren woke up Woods, first trying to punch him, then chasing him with a golf club. Woods, still in an Ambien haze, ran barefoot to the car, and promptly crashed it. The rest is history. (More Elin Nordegren stories.)